It’s a good time in the literary LGBT world – Val McDermid, Louise Welsh and Mari Hannah dominate crime fiction, queer lady romance is a booming genre thanks to LGBT publishers Bold Strokes and Ylva, and DIVA favourite Kirsty Logan has been making a magical realism splash, first with The Gracekeepers and now with 2018’s The Gloaming, out in April. When it comes to historical fiction though, queer women and trans people have been largely overshadowed by cis gay men.
Aside from award-winning luminaries like Sarah Waters and Emma Donoghue, historical fiction by or about LGBT women has been scarce – and while this is gradually changing, it’s still a slow process. Where is our equivalent of The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice And Virtue, 2017’s breakout that Tor called “the queer young adult historical fantasy adventure you’ve been waiting for”? We’re still standing by for the lady version of Monty, the dashing rake who breaks both men and women’s hearts while secretly pining for his best friend Percy. This isn’t to denigrate the brilliant Mackenzi Lee, who shattered all the preconceptions around what Georgian England looked like – spoiler alert, it was neither as straight nor as white as Austen adaptations would have you think – but to point out that publishers have to learn from her success and realise that readers of all sexualities want diverse characters, and that the LGBT community deserves to have our history represented.